The end of the year

Eek the end of 2010 is here. Time really does feel like it goes by so quickly.

Cleaning

I decided today that I would get some cleaning done. Last night I made good progress by doing a lot of work on our bedroom.

Today was the turn of the wee ones bedroom and the hall. Even though they were the tidiest of the rooms they still took a while before they were in a state that I was happy with.

Though I always seem to find a bag of clutter that needs to be sorted through. I was putting away my youngest sons present (the one that I ordered from America) and I discovered a bag of stuff that I really need to go through.

Sadly though it is looking like that the usual weekly garbage collections will not be happening. However I will put the stuff in black bags and get my partners dad to take them up to the tip.

I want that for my Christmas

Is what my daughter told me today when she saw something on the TV. She seems to have forgotten that she will be getting a birthday next. I thought it was funny how she said that. She certainly has started early.

Clean up

The clean up from yesterday has started. While I did a big clean up of the living room yesterday the clearing up of the wrapping and the wrapping paper started today. I have managed to nearly fill up the paper bucket already.

I did manage to get a good sleep last night but I am looking forward to my lie in tomorrow though as I was so tired yesterday that I think I need more than just one good sleep to catch up.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas. We have had a lovely and relaxing Christmas (just like the one two years ago) well it was not that bad last year but even though it was nice being at my mums house last year it is nicer to be at home (We also have the advantage of having hogmannay at home as well)

The wee ones got up at a good time (that was very much needed as I ended up going to bed at 3) however even though they got up at 8.30 I still did not get enough sleep. I am treating myself to a couple of glasses of mulled wine and going to bed early.

The wee ones have been good and once again I limited the amount of chocolate that they had so that they did not go mad.

We all got some nice presents. I got a funky new pendulum from my partner.

Christmas Eve

And all the joys of it are in full force. Having said that as I decided to go shopping locally I did not have to do battle with the other shoppers who go into panic mode because there is one day off (there are still some shops that will open tomorrow so it is not like people are really missing out)

Not setting well at night

I do not know what it up with my eldest son but he is not settling off well at night time. There has been plenty of times when getting him settled has been a challenge, but up till recently it has not been that bad. Tonight it was past ten when he settled. He gets himself so worked up at night when he is going to bed. I am not sure what to do about it.

Getting prepared

I have started getting ready for Christmas. Sorting through the presents, cleaning up.

Our new Christmas tree arrived today. I am so glad that it arrived in time for Christmas. I have put it up and even though it is 1.8 meters it does not look huge. It is slim so it does not look too bulky and it does not feel like it dominates the room. It fits really well in our living room. I am really happy with it. I did not think I would be happy with a tree that big but I am.

Happy Winter Solstice

And there was a lunar eclipse this morning as well. Sadly I missed a lot of it as I am not good at getting up, but I did manage to catch some of it and I did feel like I was a part of it. I should have made the effort to have got up to have seen more, but I did at least see it.

I put the pictures of the goddesses up that I drew last night and I gave a present to the wee ones.

I have now lit some candles and I will meditate to welcome in the new solar year.

I will get better at this as we do it more often but I am glad that I took part in the winter solstice this year. The wee ones also enjoyed it as well.

Bright blessing to all.

Still got computer problems

It took a while to get my computer last night. My partner thinks that my computer is having problems like his was recently. He took something off his computer and that fixed it.

I have not been good. I not only forgot to write out Christmas cards for the twins for the children at nursery but I also did not get over in time to see them get their present off Santa (oops) thankfully though I will see a picture of it in their PLP. They also did not seem upset with me when I turned up (I did arrive in time to hear them sing Merry Christmas)

It has been a cold day today though. My partner said that the wee ones were crying on the way to school. He said it was -10, but at least they were able to make it.

problems wityh my computer

Oh dear, my computer is not working well.

Enjoying Japanese learning

Recently the Japanese learning that I have been doing had become challenging. I did not really get on well with one of the units and while I was learning what it was teaching, I was not enjoying it. I decided to move onto the next lesson. This has gone much better and now I am picking up on what it is teaching. I really would like to become good at speaking Japanese. I need to find a way of getting in touch with a Japanese person who will want to help me learn Japanese as well (I think that would be better than the lessons that I have got)

I think I might see if I can find some advanced lessons online as well. I have also enjoyed learning written Japanese. I read that it is best to start of learning Hiragana first before learning Katakana. So that is what I am learning. It is not that difficult to write out the symbols. I just need to keep looking through them so that I can memorize them. This will make it easier for me to eventually recognize different words. I have now got a few things with Japanese text that I can practice on, though I know plenty of places online where I can also practice (Each member of Vistlip has a blog and their official page is in Japanese)

New tree

The Christmas lights arrived eventually for the tree today (the deliveries have been delayed due to the wild weather we had) but when I put them up I noticed that there were too many for the tree.

In the evening I decided I would just order a new tree. I had a look online and I saw one for just under £10. It looks good for the price, so I ordered it. Even though it is just under two meters tall it does not look that wide, so hopefully it will not take up too much room. It should hopefully get here in time for Christmas. Though even if it does not get here in time then I will still put it up anyway. If all I get is it up for a couple of days then that is still good enough.

I really, really...

need to make sure that I get an early night. I am so shattered from going to bed too late. Last night was better but I need to make sure that I am in bed by 12.

Feeling better but needing an early night

I was not feeling that great yesterday, I was feeling down for part of the day. I am not sure why though. Thankfully today I have felt much better. I have managed to meditate as well.

I have also got the form that I need to fill out for the twins when they start P1 next year. I will get that handed in tomorrow.

I even manged to meditate this morning. I had stopped doing it for a variety of reasons, but I feel much better for having done so this morning.

Cranky

Oops I have been very cranky with the wee ones in the morning. I was able to get a nap once my partner had got up though and that really helped me. I had fun with my youngest son in the afternoon. Well I actually had fun with them all at points.

They have also all been drawing today as well. My eldest has done some great drawings.

I do need to meditate though. I also need to get more pratise on my Japanese writing.

Shopping

I decided to go Christmas shopping today, but once again I ended up completely over laden with shopping bags (I will have shoulders like Arnie soon)

Warmer today

After the really cold weather it has warmed up very quickly. Today it was above freezing (though the wind chil made it feel like -3)

Taking the wee ones to school was so much easier. I also managed to get some time to myself in the morning as my step daughter and partner slept in late.

Another good thing happened was that some of the Christmas presents have arrived today (Including some books that I ordered for myself) Hopefully it will not be long before they all arrive.

Day off

After the fun of yesterday, and discovering that their wellies were wet inside this morning I decided to keep them off school (I also did not fancy going out in -15)

It is not so cold not and the wellies have been dried so things will be back to normal tomorrow (hopefully)

I took a screenshot of my desktop this morning to show the temperature of the desktop weather thingies that I have got.

Back home again

My youngest son is home again. My partner is a bit worried that they sent him home too early, so we will keep a watchful eye over him over the next few days. I am very glad that he is home though. He got a really funky toy for being brave at hospital (they woke him up lots during the night for various reasons)

It has been entertaining for me. I shared my bed with the two wee ones who remained here while my youngest son was in hospital (that is happening ever night for at least a month) I heard a text arrive at my phone but I ignored it, by the time I looked at the message it was eight o'clock. It was a message telling me that the schools were open. That meant that I had forty minutes to get them up, fed and dressed and out of the door.

My eldest turned into a teenager and refused to get out of bed while I was running around like a woman possessed getting everything ready. I eventually managed to get him up before the next battle of getting him off the computer started, after I had won that battle there was the battle to get him dressed before finally getting them out of the door.

I made good time and had them ready when I wanted. Unfortunately the next challenge was getting them to school in the snow. My daughter fell on the door step and my son fell a few steps later. I had a sense of doom when this happened, which was confirmed when they both fell at the gate and got snow in their wellies.

I emptied the wellies and we started again, only to get a few meters where they fell again and got more snow in the wellies. This was at the point when they both started crying (very loudly)

Thankfully after that the snow was getting better ground in, though when we got to the steps to the wood I found that there had been so much snow that I could not see the steps, so we had to slide down there and shuffle all the way through the wood (all the while dragging the wee ones at that point as they were getting louder and louder with their protests)

All through the wood and all along the road to the school they screamed. I did feel for them and I was very glad when they got to school as at least they were in the warmth (though I forgot to put in socks for my son so he had to spend all day with no socks on...oops) my daughter was better off as there was a change of clothes in her nursery bag.

Thankfully the trip to get my daughter from the end of nursery and at the end of the day for my son went so much better (I remembered to take a dry pair of socks for him) Lets home tomorrow morning is not as eventful as today as I will be taking all three of them...eek.

Hospital

My youngest son is in hospital.

What we thought was mumps turned out not to be mumps. My partner took him up to the doctors after we managed to get an appointment in the afternoon. The doctor though he could have an infection but advised us to take hi to hospital to get him checked out.

It was a bit of a challenge getting him to hospital as the public transport has been canceled due to the weather (My friends husband took twelve hours to get home) but thankfully one of my partners cousin was able to take them in. They did some tests and checked him over and they think that there could be a problem with his tonsils. They have said that he should stay in until the swelling has gone down. That means that he could be in hospital for the minimum of two days.

I think I will be the one spending tomorrow night in the hospital, so I had better get a bag ready so that I have something to do once he falls asleep at night.

Decorations

My wee ones have managed to put their mark on the decorations already. The decorations have not been up for a week but already the tree lights do not work, one of the decorations has been broken, the side looks a mess, the reindeer at the top of the tree has fell off and one of the eyes from the Santa on the wall has come off.

If I have told them once I have told them a million times to be careful around the decorations. So much that I really do sound like a stuck record. Ah well maybe4 one day they will listen to me...but then again I am their mother so maybe they won't.

Thankfully I had already ordered new lights so that is that problem solved. I have no idea how I will fix the broken decoration, but as for the rest I will clean that up tonight. It is though yet another job to add to my seemingly endless list of jobs to do.

Typically though that when the school is open again after the snow that my wee ones will have to stay off due to my youngest son being ill (bless he really was not happy today) I will find out tomorrow how long I will have to keep them off. We phoned the NHS helpline and they told us that there is nothing that can be done about the mumps. Strangely enough they did not say anything about taking him to the doctors. I think I will do anyway as I would like for it to be confirmed.

Cranky

I have been so cranky today at points (it also has not helped that my partner has been extremely cranky and swearing a lot)

It is my fault for going to bed far too late last night, and even though the wee ones got up at a decent time I did not get enough sleep. I need to get into a routine of getting to bed much earlier than what I am doing. Last night was different as I had put up the decorations, but there has been other times when it has not been that which has caused me to go to bed too late.

The wee ones loved the decorations though. Though the decorations will need to be fixed many times before they get put back I fear. They could not stop touching them. It does not help that the cobwebs that I put down tend to tangle everything up in them, so it is very easy to drag everything off.

This is what the decorations look like:

Getting irratable again

I have not been good with my meditation. As the wee ones have been off school I have not been doing it during the day and I have been forgetting to do it at night (when I have been going to bed too late meaning that I have not been getting a good sleep) Though today at the points when I could feel myself really getting irritable I started thinking about the music that I play when I meditate and that did help me calm down really well.

It also has not helped that my partner has been so cranky today. He did have a time when he was better but he has been so off today that it has also affected me. I do need to make sure that I get a good sleep tonight. I will also make sure that I meditate before I go to sleep. I will put the music CD in the DVD player in the bedroom when I go to bed.

I am going to start getting the Christmas decorations out tonight. I think it will be good to see them out. I will be putting out Halloween decorations as well as I did not bother at the right time. I think it could look really funky this year.

The week off

I have not experienced schools being closed for so long. It has not been too bad this week. It has actually been nice not having to rush out in the morning. I am not sure when our buckets will be emptied but I have put that out as that is what has been advised on the website.

I wonder what will happen next week though. They need to get the road up to the school clear as the main roads are getting much better.

On a different subject though, my keyboard has gone from bad to worse today. Not many keys on it work at all. I will take it apart and give it a good clean. I have had to change the keyboard and put my old one back on. I will not be happy if I cannot get my funky Japanese keyboard to work though.

I have started Christmas shopping online today. What with the challenging weather I thought it would be better to order stuff now and then it should hopefully arrive in plenty of time. Some of the stuff has to be sent away so I need to get the extra time for the extra postage.

Grumpy

My partner is still really grumpy to be around. He was off with me. I was a wee bit sarcastic with him and he was really grumpy back to me. I will be so glad when this stops.

I also do not know what is up with my keyboard. I type a t and I get an r with it and when I type an r I get a t with it. I have to keep correcting the spelling as I type.

I went to my friends house tonight for the first time in a while. It was good to see her, even if I did not stay for that long. Though I forgot the magazine that I was supposed to take up to her.